Is it really the ultimate guardian build? Maybe not. Is it better than what you're currently running? Yes. Yes it is.

Gear: All Berserker. This includes weapon, armor, accessories, jewels, etc. The "main" weapon for this build is the 1H sword, with either shield or focus offhand. Your alternate sets can be mace, greatsword, or staff. Sword can be replaced with scepter for fights you need to range.

Runes: Either [2x Superior Monk (AC dungeon drop or token reward), 2x Superior Water, 2x Major Sanctuary (HotW dungeon drop or token reward)] OR [6x Superior Eagle]. The former is more balanced between offense and defense, the latter is full offensive. Both are good. The numbers I'm using here assume boon duration, because that's what I personally use.

Sigils: Either Superior Strength or Superior Blood on your MH weapons, and always Superior Accuracy on your offhand (if one exists). The former is offensive, the latter is defensive. Again, both are good.

In summary, your crit rate should be about 75%, while your additional crit damage (on top of the base 50%) will be 77% with ascended rings (no amulet yet, need dem laurels).

Potential utilities:
Sword of Justice; Dies rather quickly now that they can be attacked, but still a good burst of DPS in some cases.
Wall of Reflection: Self-explanatory.
Hold the Line: Protection and regen, for when what you're currently getting just isn't enough.
Signet of Judgment: This is possibly the best signet in the game. 10% damage reduction is, at minimum, worth something like 300 toughness. Take it and forget it.
Stand Your Ground: Probably the best stunbreak in the game ever, except for back in beta when the Engineer's juggernaut trait turned Flamethrower into an infinitely spammable stun break for no cost.
Save Yourselves: Fury boon? Sign me up. Also comes with some other stuff as an added bonus.
Retreat: Long stack of swiftnesss, plus an extra Aegis block for when you can't be bothered to dodge. With Pure of Heart traited, you also get a free heal out of it.

So basically I worked with this as a replacement for the 10/0/30/30/0 dungeon build, which I was feeling had too little damage output. Now that roll canceling no longer works, Elusive Power is crap and "too little" damage output is now "no" damage output. Ergo, time for something new. The advantage of this build is having an extremely high crit rate; your base crit rate will be about 75%; This is important not just because it makes you deal more damage and proc might more often, but also because it makes you heal for a ridiculous amount with every swing with Omnomberry Pie. Omnom Pie heals for 325 per proc at level 80, 66% chance on crit, with no internal cooldown. This means that you have a 50% chance to heal 325 heal with every attack. If you don't appreciate how much this is, consider that the auto-attack chain hits, on average, twice a second. That's 325 health per second just from auto-attacking. A Smite with a scepter will net you 2.4k if all the hits connect.

The important thing, however, is that your DPS will be super high. The sword averages out to 2729/sec, while greatsword nets 2848/sec on a boon duration spec, and slightly higher if you use Eagle runes. If you are against a large target you can land max Smite hits on, you can get as much as 2925/sec with a scepter. What you will notice, of course, is that I am recommending you use 1H sword instead of greatsword, even though it deals slightly less damage. The main reason for this is because you will note that, unlike most guardian builds, you do not get Altruistic Healing for this build. That means you will need to get your defensive buffs from elsewhere. Sword is good for this because it has a higher crit rate, allowing you to proc Sigil of Blood/Omnom heals more often, and you can take a shield (for protection and knockback) or a focus (for regen/blind and block). The secret, however, is that you don't actually sacrifice DPS by going with sword as your main weapon. Greatsword has more "burst damage" skills but a weaker auto-attack, and they're all on a 10s or longer recharge. That means you can constantly rotate between the two, allowing you to get the extra defensive benefits from sword plus the higher auto-attack DPS while the greatsword skills recharge.

In general, though, your offhand should probably be mace, with whatever offhand you're not using on sword, or staff. This will give you an "emergency swap" if you are running low on health for the extra panic buttons. It will also allow you to "lead" into a fight by dropping a symbol (and Orb, if staff) for a chunk of burst damage, before you go to sword to deal damage.

Beyond that, there isn't much to say. It's still as self-explanatory as the other build, really.

Other Stuff:

1) You can go 10/30/30/0/0 instead of 10/30/10/20/0. Your damage will be roughly equivalent (in fact, I think it's slightly higher) and you will gain about 7% more damage reduction, at the cost of 2k health, a small bit of health per regeneration tick, and not being able to spread might to your entire party. The advantage is that you can trait meditations and take Monk's Focus (I don't recommend taking Altruistic Healing since you won't have any real means of proccing enough boons to make a difference without Empowering Might). In general I prefer the group damage boost and constant vigor uptime (plus the minor healing from rolls) but the option is there if you want it.

2) You don't actually need Omnoms. I've run plenty of dungeons, including Fractals wiithout any kind of consumable and done just fine. If you just play smart the passive defenses from your offhand and alternate weapon are typically more than enough to keep you alive.

3) Zealot's Defense isn't worth using unless you are trying to proc more lifesteals or block an incoming projectile. It actually deals less damage than your auto-attack over the same period of time. Don't spam it on cooldown and save it as a defensive measure.

4) If you know you are up against a big boss that is easy to connect all hits of Smite on, use a scepter. This applies even if you are confident you can range the boss. Scepter damage with full Smite hits is even higher than 1H sword and racks up crit procs like no one's business.

Pretty good DPS build. Unfortunately this don't really work since I'm playing a hybrid (knight/Berserker) Guardian in my Fractal Group. But i will definitely give a word to the other the DPS Guardian of my group.

Is it really the ultimate guardian build? Maybe not. Is it better than what you're currently running? Yes. Yes it is.

Gear: All Berserker. This includes weapon, armor, accessories, jewels, etc. The "main" weapon for this build is the 1H sword, with either shield or focus offhand. Your alternate sets can be mace, greatsword, or staff. Sword can be replaced with scepter for fights you need to range.

Runes: Either [2x Superior Monk (AC dungeon drop or token reward), 2x Superior Water, 2x Major Sanctuary (HotW dungeon drop or token reward)] OR [6x Superior Eagle]. The former is more balanced between offense and defense, the latter is full offensive. Both are good. The numbers I'm using here assume boon duration, because that's what I personally use.

Sigils: Either Superior Strength or Superior Blood on your MH weapons, and always Superior Accuracy on your offhand (if one exists). The former is offensive, the latter is defensive. Again, both are good.

Even if you go with the 6xSuperior Rune of the Eagle (your post says you based your figures of the Boon Duration Runes) thats only another 8% so 85% total so 21-29% under your posted value.

I *think* I got everything but it's certainly possible I missed a bonus somewhere so just point out what I missed if that's the case.

Based on the amount you're off (29%) I would assume you forgot you only have 10 Valour and counted 30% instead of 10% from that (20%) plus added stats from an Exquisite Ruby Jewel to the 2 Ascended Rings and the Ascended Back (3*3%=9%).

Also, I'm pretty sure 6 Ruby Orbs beats out 6 Runes of the Eagle for dps and is much cheaper!

It seems to me that you would want to go 30 into valor for the full 30% crit bonus damage alone. 1-handed dps builds are all designed around very high crit rates. I would certainly think that the extra 20% crit damage would outweigh any form of might stacking that you are hoping to achieve by taking empowering might. I would also go ahead and pick up Meditation Mastery and Monk's Focus for some semblance of survivability.

Even if you go with the 6xSuperior Rune of the Eagle (your post says you based your figures of the Boon Duration Runes) thats only another 8% so 85% total so 21-29% under your posted value.

I *think* I got everything but it's certainly possible I missed a bonus somewhere so just point out what I missed if that's the case.

Based on the amount you're off (29%) I would assume you forgot you only have 10 Valour and counted 30% instead of 10% from that (20%) plus added stats from an Exquisite Ruby Jewel to the 2 Ascended Rings and the Ascended Back (3*3%=9%).

Also, I'm pretty sure 6 Ruby Orbs beats out 6 Runes of the Eagle for dps and is much cheaper!

You're right. That's my fault. Let me revise.

kidbs, on 30 January 2013 - 09:10 PM, said:

It seems to me that you would want to go 30 into valor for the full 30% crit bonus damage alone. 1-handed dps builds are all designed around very high crit rates. I would certainly think that the extra 20% crit damage would outweigh any form of might stacking that you are hoping to achieve by taking empowering might. I would also go ahead and pick up Meditation Mastery and Monk's Focus for some semblance of survivability.

It actually comes out to about the same, except the might you get from Empowering Might is party-wide, while the extra 20% crit damage only affects you. 10/30/30/0/0 works fine for PvP but for dungeons this works better.

This is why I always ask you to show your calculations, I'm not trying to be a dick i just can't blindly accept numbers when there are so many little things that could have been forgotten or miscalculated.

I use berserkers weapons and Knights armor. Crit sits around 45-50%. Great survivabilty w/o sacrificing too much dmg, because as we all know, dead DPS is NO DPS, especially now with WP nerf and combat in general in Frac. I also swap mace for focus or sword depending on fight and group comp, sometimes I throw on the great sword/hammer for fun too. I Always have staff though, Empower is too OP to not have especially for the group.

Interesting build though, I bet it is viable, just I cannot play without Altruistic healing, even post nerf, it is too good IMO.

Is it really the ultimate guardian build? Maybe not. Is it better than what you're currently running? Yes. Yes it is.

Gear: All Berserker. This includes weapon, armor, accessories, jewels, etc. The "main" weapon for this build is the 1H sword, with either shield or focus offhand. Your alternate sets can be mace, greatsword, or staff. Sword can be replaced with scepter for fights you need to range.

Runes: Either [2x Superior Monk (AC dungeon drop or token reward), 2x Superior Water, 2x Major Sanctuary (HotW dungeon drop or token reward)] OR [6x Superior Eagle]. The former is more balanced between offense and defense, the latter is full offensive. Both are good. The numbers I'm using here assume boon duration, because that's what I personally use.

Sigils: Either Superior Strength or Superior Blood on your MH weapons, and always Superior Accuracy on your offhand (if one exists). The former is offensive, the latter is defensive. Again, both are good.

In summary, your crit rate should be about 75%, while your additional crit damage (on top of the base 50%) will be 77% with ascended rings (no amulet yet, need dem laurels).

Potential utilities:
Sword of Justice; Dies rather quickly now that they can be attacked, but still a good burst of DPS in some cases.
Wall of Reflection: Self-explanatory.
Hold the Line: Protection and regen, for when what you're currently getting just isn't enough.
Signet of Judgment: This is possibly the best signet in the game. 10% damage reduction is, at minimum, worth something like 300 toughness. Take it and forget it.
Stand Your Ground: Probably the best stunbreak in the game ever, except for back in beta when the Engineer's juggernaut trait turned Flamethrower into an infinitely spammable stun break for no cost.
Save Yourselves: Fury boon? Sign me up. Also comes with some other stuff as an added bonus.
Retreat: Long stack of swiftnesss, plus an extra Aegis block for when you can't be bothered to dodge. With Pure of Heart traited, you also get a free heal out of it.

So basically I worked with this as a replacement for the 10/0/30/30/0 dungeon build, which I was feeling had too little damage output. Now that roll canceling no longer works, Elusive Power is crap and "too little" damage output is now "no" damage output. Ergo, time for something new. The advantage of this build is having an extremely high crit rate; your base crit rate will be about 75%; This is important not just because it makes you deal more damage and proc might more often, but also because it makes you heal for a ridiculous amount with every swing with Omnomberry Pie. Omnom Pie heals for 325 per proc at level 80, 66% chance on crit, with no internal cooldown. This means that you have a 50% chance to heal 325 heal with every attack. If you don't appreciate how much this is, consider that the auto-attack chain hits, on average, twice a second. That's 325 health per second just from auto-attacking. A Smite with a scepter will net you 2.4k if all the hits connect.

The important thing, however, is that your DPS will be super high. The sword averages out to 2729/sec, while greatsword nets 2848/sec on a boon duration spec, and slightly higher if you use Eagle runes. If you are against a large target you can land max Smite hits on, you can get as much as 2925/sec with a scepter. What you will notice, of course, is that I am recommending you use 1H sword instead of greatsword, even though it deals slightly less damage. The main reason for this is because you will note that, unlike most guardian builds, you do not get Altruistic Healing for this build. That means you will need to get your defensive buffs from elsewhere. Sword is good for this because it has a higher crit rate, allowing you to proc Sigil of Blood/Omnom heals more often, and you can take a shield (for protection and knockback) or a focus (for regen/blind and block). The secret, however, is that you don't actually sacrifice DPS by going with sword as your main weapon. Greatsword has more "burst damage" skills but a weaker auto-attack, and they're all on a 10s or longer recharge. That means you can constantly rotate between the two, allowing you to get the extra defensive benefits from sword plus the higher auto-attack DPS while the greatsword skills recharge.

In general, though, your offhand should probably be mace, with whatever offhand you're not using on sword, or staff. This will give you an "emergency swap" if you are running low on health for the extra panic buttons. It will also allow you to "lead" into a fight by dropping a symbol (and Orb, if staff) for a chunk of burst damage, before you go to sword to deal damage.

Beyond that, there isn't much to say. It's still as self-explanatory as the other build, really.

Two things I'm wondering. Is having 75% crit chance that much better than 60%?

Also, from a DPS stand point I'm not sure why you would spend 20 points into Honor? You get a slight benefit from Superior Aria (may actually be no benefit depending on group composition), no beneficial damage attributes, no beneficial damage oriented minors, and EM with max up time is only 5 stacks of might. Does this outperform 20 points into Valor? 20% harder crits and 5% more crit chance seems like a better damage investment. Even 20 points in Zeal gives a larger raw attribute bonus to power then max stacks of EM.

Two things I'm wondering. Is having 75% crit chance that much better than 60%?

Also, from a DPS stand point I'm not sure why you would spend 20 points into Honor? You get a slight benefit from Superior Aria (may actually be no benefit depending on group composition), no beneficial damage attributes, no beneficial damage oriented minors, and EM with max up time is only 5 stacks of might. Does this outperform 20 points into Valor? 20% harder crits and 5% more crit chance seems like a better damage investment. Even 20 points in Zeal gives a larger raw attribute bonus to power then max stacks of EM.

I use berserkers weapons and Knights armor. Crit sits around 45-50%. Great survivabilty w/o sacrificing too much dmg, because as we all know, dead DPS is NO DPS, especially now with WP nerf and combat in general in Frac. I also swap mace for focus or sword depending on fight and group comp, sometimes I throw on the great sword/hammer for fun too. I Always have staff though, Empower is too OP to not have especially for the group.

Interesting build though, I bet it is viable, just I cannot play without Altruistic healing, even post nerf, it is too good IMO.

Ah, altruistic healing in this build makes me feel less shaky. I'll give it a go

EDIT:
I have this build running right now, but health is <13k. What is your jewelry setup?

I'm somewhat confused how you're using berserker's and knights and not having 60% crit chance base (probably not using eagle runes), but with Fury in your team, the 15% chance from grandmaster seems superfluous and won't be adding much. Imo, anything over 15-20 radiance is a waste in a power/crit orientated build. If you ever need a little more precision, you can just eat a precision-based food, raising precision by 70-100.

Question is, how can you justify spending 10-15 points in a line that boosts condition damage and little else?

The only bad thing is you have to be rich to get this stuff. Berserker is so expensive as well as those eagle runes.

But I sure need a build. Been farming bloods now for days. Stuff is (everything is) so expensive in GW2, and it's so hard to get gold for those who don't have the full gear and go dungeon runs. I really hope they increase the amount of gold you could make by farming outside instances and gold gained from getting gold in events.

The only bad thing is you have to be rich to get this stuff. Berserker is so expensive as well as those eagle runes.

But I sure need a build. Been farming bloods now for days. Stuff is (everything is) so expensive in GW2, and it's so hard to get gold for those who don't have the full gear and go dungeon runs. I really hope they increase the amount of gold you could make by farming outside instances and gold gained from getting gold in events.

Yes. Much better. Heh.

In all seriousness while Strife's build is okay it is heavily reliant on stacking Knights gear and having Altruistic Healing in conjunction with substantial investment in the Honor line, which is nice as it offers a lot of defensive stats and gives you room to make mistakes, but comes at the price of making you substantially less useful to your team, as you are giving up a massive chunk of DPS in exchange for a marginal benefit in survivability. I wouldn't be surprised if this build deals at least 50% more damage than Strife's build, if not more. I haven't run the numbers or anything though since I don't really feel like trying to figure out what his crit damage should be given his crazy spread of knights and berserker's gear. You can't really call yourself a DPS when you don't actually deal any damage.

For the largest value of X you want C*D to be the largest, pumping one up way higher than the other will result in a lower product than if you pump both equally - for example, 1+9 = 5+5, but 1*9 < 5*5.

You do need to factor in the fact that it costs 21 precision to increase C by 1% compared to the cost per point of D being somewhere between 5 and 16 depending on where you're getting it from.

Crit also adds more than just damage, it adds effects on crit like the Omnom Pie/Ghost healing, EM, Sigil of Strength and Vigorous Precision so don't forget to take that into account.

Runes: Either [2x Superior Monk (AC dungeon drop or token reward), 2x Superior Water, 2x Major Sanctuary (HotW dungeon drop or token reward)] OR [6x Superior Eagle]. The former is more balanced between offense and defense, the latter is full offensive. Both are good. The numbers I'm using here assume boon duration, because that's what I personally use.

Hey GK, just wondering how you made the decision between boon duration and something offensive like the 6 Eagle runes (or 6 Ruby Orbs). I can quantify and compare damage between the Runes and the Orbs but Quantifying Boon Duration is a little trickier.

Hey GK, just wondering how you made the decision between boon duration and something offensive like the 6 Eagle runes (or 6 Ruby Orbs). I can quantify and compare damage between the Runes and the Orbs but Quantifying Boon Duration is a little trickier.

In terms of damage it's just how many more stacks of might you can get. Without boon duration you get between 2-3 stacks from Sigil of Strength and 4-5 from Empowering Might. With, that goes up to 4-5 for the former and 7-8 for the latter. In practice I find that you can maintain 5-6 more stacks with 40% more boon duration compared to no boon duration at all.

Of course, there is also fury but Guardians only get one short-term fury application, so it doesn't make that much of a difference in the grand scheme of things.